Death, destruction and national catastrophe

Of course, this was supposedly in the national character; it was proverbial that the Englishman displayed emotion only when faced by some truly earth-shaking crisis, like a cricket match, or the ill-treatment of an animal, or a rise in the price of beer; for such trivia as death, destruction and national catastrophe he was supposed to reserve an indifference that bordered on insanity.


Mr American, pp.510-11, Pan Books, paperback edition 1982.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, emotion.

Deeply Moved

As always when deeply moved she was getting Scotcher by the minute . . .


Flashman and the Tiger, p.256, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Prefer to substitute

     Somewhere or other that downy bird Kipling observes that the lesson of the island race is to put away all emotion and entrap the alien at the proper time.* I learned it in my cradle, long before he wrote it, and have practised it all my life with some success, and only this difference, that for “entrap” I prefer to substitute “escape”.

* Footnote 16: The quotation is from "In Ambush", in Stalky & Co.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.89, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, entrap.

Shan't call it a heartbreak

…I shan’t call it a heartbreak, for my old pump is too calloused an article to break. But it can feel a twist…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.213, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Deeply-felt sentimental mood

And then they were thundering away back on the Samarkand road, cloaks flying, and Kutebar turning in the saddle to give me a wave and a roar. And it’s odd – but for a moment I felt lonely, and wondered it I should miss them. It was a deeply-felt sentimental mood which lasted for at least a quarter of a second, and has never returned, I’m happy to say.

Flashman at the Charge, p.287, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Samarkand, farewells.